I promised Boofer to post some pictures when I cut the first Leiden, so here they are. Texture was really nice, as to be expected from a Gouda-type cheese. Good balance between cumin and cheese, like I know from the Leiden that is made here in Holland. Taste somewhat richer than a normal Leiden, because it is normally made from skimmed milk and I made it from raw whole milk.Wheel turned out to be just over 1080 gram (about 2.4 lbs). Batch was made on March 10 2012, second wheel will stay in the cave for another couple of weeks.During lunch we had the first slices on a sandwich, delicious...

No, it's completely illegal...But to be serious: It's a two handed cheese knive about 18 inch long and I was lucky enough to find it on the Dutch version of eBay for a very reasonable price. A new one is at least 85 euro's.

LOL, I had to look that up on Wiki but no, it's not a scimitar. You don't have those cheese cutters in the US?Yes, the cheese is pretty young, my wife couldn't wait any longer but I have one wheel still in the cave, cause I'm curious how it will be when more mature...

My cheeses always stick to my knives and I end up breaking it off in the end. I even bought "cheese kinves" and they still stick. Did fin one with no metal in the middle that cuts well but it's to short for a whole wheel. The wires work well but I always loose them.

There wasn't much whey leakage since it came out of the brine. The pressing obviously expressed a lot of the residual moisture from the wheel.

This morning it joined the ranks of Tomme #5 and Tilsit #2 in the white cave. I'll let it sit in there for a week or so for additional drying. I think the rind should be fairly clean so I'm thinking once it has had a little time in the cave, I'll vacuum-bag it. The recipe calls for a double layer of wax.

I don't have much information about the care and feeding of a Leyden. We'll see how it fares.

-Boofer-

What temperature is your white cave? I just made one of these on the weekend from a recipe I found online and it doesn't give time or temp to let it dry before covering. Currently room temp here is 19C.Cheers,Bill.